Submit one short story, one creative non-fiction piece, up to five
poems or five pieces of artwork. Click on the genre guidelines for more specific requirements.

Your name, contact information and any relevant background information can be placed in the space designated as a cover letter.

Submissions must be previously unpublished. You may submit work in
multiple genres, but use separate submissions for each genre and limit
your submissions to one per genre. Please do not submit additional work
in a single reading period before hearing back from us about your first
submission. We do accept simultaneous submissions but must be notified
immediately if the work is published elsewhere.

Please query after four months.

Reading Period
We read submissions from September 1st to November 1st and January 15th through April 1st. The Gulf Stream Magazine Summer Contest runs from June 1st through August 1st. Please only send work during these reading periods.

Copyright Info
We hold first serial rights for the material we publish, with the copyright reverting back to the author upon publication.

Fiction:We are interested in fiction of any type that matters, that speaks to us, that makes a difference, including quality flash, literary fiction, alternative fiction and graphic literature (see our specific guidelines for graphic submissions below). Please submit only one prose piece at a time per reading period. We are especially interested in shorter pieces of fiction, but all stories must be approximately 5,000 words or less. You may submit up to three flash pieces in one document.

Because we read many submissions per week, it is much easier for us if you double space your work, and use a 12-point font. Avoid colored fonts, cursive fonts, fonts of varying sizes, full italics, and improperly formatted dialogue, or single-spaced formatting.

Submissions must be previously unpublished. You may submit work in multiple genres, but use separate submissions for each genre and limit your submissions to one per genre. We try and respond as quickly as possible to all work, but because we give each piece the care it deserves, it may take up to three months for a response. Please do not submit additional work in a single reading period before hearing back from us about your first submission. We do accept simultaneous submissions but please let us know immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere.

Poetry:We accept poetry of all forms and styles. We want poems that take risks and surprise us with fresh language, perspectives and ideas. If your poem says something that hasn’t been said before, we want to read it.

Include up to 5 poems in a single document. Your name should not appear anywhere on the submission except the cover letter.

Submissions must be previously unpublished. You may submit work in multiple genres, but use separate submissions for each genre and limit your submissions to one per genre. We try and respond as quickly as possible to all work, but because we give each piece the care it deserves, it may take up to three months for a response. Please do not submit additional work in a single reading period before hearing back from us about your first submission. We do accept simultaneous submissions but please let us know immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere.

We are open to the many forms that non-fiction embodies, including experimental/lyric prose, memoir, flash, journalistic-style essays, lyric essay and more traditional narrative pieces. We like stories with perspective in which authors are able to reflect on and interpret the past in new and interesting ways.

Because we read many submissions per week, it is much easier for us if you double space your work, and use a 12-point font. Please limit your submissions to 6,000 words or less. Your name should not appear anywhere on the submission except the cover letter.

Submissions must be previously unpublished. You may submit work in multiple genres, but use separate submissions for each genre and limit your submissions to one per genre. We try and respond as quickly as possible to all work, but because we give each piece the care it deserves, it may take up to three months for a response. Please do not submit additional work in a single reading period before hearing back from us about your first submission. We do accept simultaneous submissions but please let us know immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere.

We will consider original work by the artist in any medium (painting, drawing, photography, graphic illustrations, images of installation / sculptures). We have eclectic tastes - we like the pretty and the ugly, the loud and quiet. If it is fresh and original, please send it our way.

Please submit no more than 5 pieces per submission (only one submission per reading period). Images should be in .jpg format, between 300 KB and 2 MB.